It wasn't supposed to be much of a meeting Tuesday night of the Manson Community Council. There wasn't much on the agenda other than approving new bylaws and swearing in Chris Willoughby and Pam Calhoun as new members. But it turned out to be quite a meeting, one of the reasons being Manson resident Mike Kirk's question about halfway through:
Council Member Willoughby – who started his third go-round on the council Tuesday night – was the first to answer Kirk's question:
That started a twenty-minute discussion on incorporation, perhaps the highlight of which included comments by Chelan County Commissioner Tiffany Gering, Community Council Chair Kari Sorenson, Chelan City Councilman John Olson, and Richard Ulhorn:
By the time it was over, the general consensus was to hold a public meeting on the matter, and perhaps a study following that. Community Council Member John Frolker:
No date has been set for a public meeting, but it's most likely a few months down the road.
Incidentally, a preliminary study of whether Manson could become a city was done by Brian Patterson in 2017; it concluded that a City of Manson would likely have sufficient revenue to incorporate if properly managed. More on this to come.